About the Man
Andrew Johnson was a man of firsts. He was the first president to succeed an assassinated president in the wake of Lincoln’s death only a few months into his second term.
He was the first to be impeached.
Of course, the impeachment trials are the most interesting facet of his presidency. There were actually two attempts to impeach Johnson, the latter one going to trial. Three votes were held, each one failing by one vote, 35-19, to grab the 2/3′s majority required to remove a president from office. Those who defended the president risked their political careers.
The charges against him were mostly based on the Tenure of Office Act. Johnson removed acting Lincoln’s Secretary of War Edwin Stanton (who sided closely with Johnson’s opponents) from office in hopes of giving the job to Ulysses S Grant. The Tenure of Office Act states that the president cannot remove anyone from the previous president’s cabinet without Senate approval.
Johnson called the Act unconstitutional. In fact, he was a man convinced that the Constitution was supreme and must be upheld at all cost. What’s ironic is this – in 1887 the act was repealed and in 1927 the act was deemed unconstitutional.
Such a decision came about 50 years to late for Andrew Johnson, who died a hero only in his home state of Tennessee. At his request, his body was wrapped in a US flag and his head rested on a copy of the constitution.
I really like two quotes from Andrew Johnson, the first is too long for the painting – “I have performed my duty to my God, my country and my family. I have nothing to fear in approaching death. To me it is the mere shadow of God’s protecting wing… Here I will rest in quiet and peace beyond the reach of calumny’s poisened shaft, the influence of envy and jealous enemies, where treason and traitors or State backsliders and hypocrites in church can have no place.”
It’s hard not to imagine a broken man who felt betrayed by his country, who in his view was only doing what he felt best for his fellow man.
The quote I used for the painting is “The goal to strive for is a poor government but a rich people.” taken from Andrew Johnson, Plebeian and Patriot, Robert Watson Winston’s 1928 Johnson biography.
